LEMURS 169 



contain about a third of the larger number ; and M. Grandidier 

 has pointed out that while some species have a wide range, 

 others have a very distinctly denned habitat, which is frequently 

 limited by two rivers, one to the north and the other to the 

 south of their district. 



Three species of the Propitheques (Lemuroida) are known by 

 the Malagasy under the common name of Simpona. They live 

 in companies of from six to eight, and are diurnal animals ; one 

 may see them morning and evening, when the heat is not too 

 great, leaping in the woods from tree to tree in search of food. 

 Often they may be surprised at sunrise, says M. Grandidier, 

 squatting on the fork of a tree, their long legs bent under them, 

 touching the chin, their hands resting on their knees, stretching 

 out their arms and legs so as not to lose a single ray of the 

 newly risen sun. The food of these animals is entirely vege- 

 table ; and they are formed for purely arboreal life, for there 

 is a membrane along the arms and legs which acts, to a certain 

 extent, as a parachute, so that they make leaps of from twenty- 

 five to thirty feet without apparent effort, and they seem to fly 

 through the air. On the rare occasions when they leave the 

 woods they advance by leaps, as if their feet were tied together, 

 and have a most comical appearance as they go across a bit of 

 open ground. One of these simpona is silvery-grey in colour, 

 with black head and neck ; another is entirely white, except for 

 its dark brown face ; and a third species is black or dark brown . 

 in colour. Of the true lemurs, I had the good fortune once to 

 see a pair of the kind called red lemur (Lemur varius, var. ruber) 

 cross a path near the house ; these were large and handsome 

 animals, warm reddish-brown in colour, and took astonishing 

 leaps in a most graceful manner ; but they were out of sight 

 in an instant, and I can easily believe what is said by collectors, 

 that it is easier to shoot a flying bird than a lemur in motion. 



In the small streams which occur at the bottom of many of 

 the ravines, we may often come across the curious nests of the 

 pensile weaver-bird (Ploceus pensilis), which are beautifully 

 and ingeniously constructed, shaped like an inverted chemical 

 retort, and are suspended from the extremities of the branches 

 of the trees and usually over running water. These nests are 

 about a foot or fourteen inches long, the bulb giving ample 

 room for the eggs or nestlings, and the tube, forming the 



